In a contested Greek legend, Phryne was publicly disrobed during her trial for alleged impiety. The jurors were outraged by her condition and declared her innocent. In another Greek story, the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of the king of Sparta, which led to an epic war.
The Greeks today are not seeking to pass mythology for fact. They happily regard their ancient legends with high esteem. They are instead searching for policies that may help overcome challenges of a failing market economy.
Disrobing and abducting women was as despicable an act in ancient times as it is today. India has had its share of such ancient stories, a few of which seem to be reincarnated in harrowing realities, an overwhelming majority of the targets being dalit women.
When stories of Ramayana and Mahabharat were telecast on Indian channels, armies of TV watchers in Lahore gathered around their sets, even if they were occasionally obtuse. Ergo: A good story is one with universal appeal.
I once quizzed a taxi driver in Beijing about the picture of Mao Zedong on his windscreen. He said it brought him good luck, and that was that. Decades before the ruler of Abu Dhabi invited Prime Minister Modi to build a Hindu temple in his Muslim state, Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser had blessed the ancient Pharaonic temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, relocated to its present position to save the monument’s imminent submergence in the the Aswan Dam.
If the breathtaking building hewn in stone was a miracle, it was a miracle of ancient science. For most of the year, its inner sanctum is in darkness. On two days a shaft of sunlight pierces the gloom, illuminating statues of gods and the king. Only the god of darkness, Ptah, remains in the shadow though he sits in the same row with others. It is unlikely that Ptah or any other ancient deity is worshipped today, but Nasser left a touching note, which is engraved on the plaque of the 3,500-year-old structure. “We thank Allah for this heritage.” Advocates of Islamic State would have slaughtered Nasser.
To stay with the inclusive Arab tradition, let’s remember that a Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi is nothing to shout about from the rooftops. A very busy Hindu temple has existed in Dubai for at least half a century. In fact the only bit of zealotry that occurred during my stay in Dubai decades ago came from Muslims from Kerala.
They had found jobs in the Islamic affairs ministry to everyone’s suffering. Tearing up newspapers and banning school textbooks for puerile reasons was their pastime. One book was proscribed when they objected to a nursery poem — Three little pigs went to town. Therefore, I am happy to see a new Hindu temple coming up in the Emirates even if a man with a 56-inch chest takes credit for it.
What does this tell us about the Indian leader? Earlier, Indian embassies used to promote their country with books and films about its cultures, and religions. Today, the government promotes Ramayana and the Bhagwad Gita. Worse, it bans works on them researched by scholars.
Buddha didn’t have to drink poison for his faith. India’s questioning spirit infused the Charavaka worldview, rooted as it was in empirical knowledge, as opposed to Brahminical ritualism. In pre-Mughal India, Kabir could berate Hindus and Muslims for bigotry. He was not lynched. Both groups competed to own him.
So what has gone wrong in India today? Narendra Dabholkar tried to get a law passed in the Maharashtra Assembly to prevent the exploitation of people through superstition. He was shot dead in Pune two years ago. The government passed an ordinance in his memory.
His rationalist colleague Govind Pansare was murdered in Kolhapur in February. Barely a week ago, M.M. Kalburgi, former V-C of a university in south India, was gunned down in his house. He was a respected reformer.
When men and women of reason are under attack in India, dubbed by their killers as enemies of Hinduism — not very different from the killings of rationalists in Bangladesh or the murder of minority rights advocates in Pakistan in the name of Islam — where should we look to find the silver lining? Mr Modi is convinced that Lord Ganesh got an elephant’s head as a result of plastic surgery. In which case T.S. Elliot had perhaps missed the point when he heard the mermaids singing. He should have paused to marvel at their human heads.
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi
By arrangement with Dawn
